Report: Troublesome asylum seekers to be housed separately

Update: 11:20 a.m., 31 March 2016: Justice Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff responded to the report published in the Telegraaf Asylum seekers who cause trouble and can not be immediately deported, will soon be housed in a separate shelter, State Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff of Security and Justice writes in a letter he will soon sent to parliament, the Telegraaf reports Dijkhoff writes that he will instruct the COA, the central agency for the reception of asylum seekers in the Netherlands, to investigate possibilities of sheltering troublemakers separately. The separate shelter is not a prison, he emphasizes. The shelter will always be open, unless the asylum seekers were sentenced to prison. The separate shelter for troublesome asylum seekers will have a sober regime. Asylum seekers must report to an authority on a daily basis, instead of weekly like usual. They will have no pocket money and must attend mandatory meetings aimed at behavioral change. Vulnerable asylum seekers, such as those threatened because of the sexuality or religion, can temporarily be housed in a separate wing of an asylum shelter, Dijhoff writes. He does not believe that separate reception for certain categories of people are a good idea as it will send the wrong signal."This does not fit with the way we live in the Netherlands and also does not reflect the position of these groups", the State Secretary writes. According to Dijkhoff, it is the troublemakers who should be held separate, not the victims. "In our society gay, heterosexual and different faiths live together and men and women are equal, Newcomers must adjust to that."